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Welcome! Artfully Musing is a blog dedicated to sharing art and the techniques and products used. I'll be showcasing collage, altered and mixed media art as well as miniature. I hope you'll check back often and are inspired. Thanks for visiting! Laura

Friday, February 26, 2016

Last summer I purchased a set of two
lanterns.One of the lanterns
arrived with the glass broken.The
company I purchased them from (Wayfair) was great and immediately replaced the
lantern and didn’t want the broken one back.I hated to throw it away so I decided to create a mermaid scene.

The sides of the lantern were great for
adding aquatic plants and creating the illusion that the of seahorses and other
creatures are swimming.

The columns stand in the center of the piece with the
mermaid queen sitting on her shell throne. It provides a place to attach the thrown image, sea creatures and aquatic plants.

The first thing I did was to wrap wire
around the top piece to keep it from sliding down. Without the glass there is nothing to hold
the top piece in place. I painted the
wire to blend in with the lantern.

Next, I cut the bottom off of a Styrofoam
cone to create a base.

I applied glue to the Styrofoam and
coated it in sand. I inserted a wooden
skewer in the Styrofoam so I could lift it to sprinkle the sand on the sides.

To make the columns that are the center
piece of the scene stand up, I added wooden skewers to the back side. The bottom of the skewers stick into the Styrofoam. The column image comes from the mermaid garden collage
sheet and is backed with thick printed cardstock.

In addition to the Asparagus
Fern Garland I found some cheap plastic greenery at the craft store which I
painted and glittered.

I glued various colors of sea glass
around the Styrofoam base. Tip: you can use alcohol ink to change the color
of the glass or to add more colors. I
used lots of pebbles and marbles from my stash on the top of the Styrofoam base.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

I can’t believe
it is already February! With February being the month of love, I have
another romantic project to share with you; the traveling Theatre Francais
presents “Lovers Promenade”. It’s the final scene in which after many
pitfalls, all the lovers are finally united (aka a happy ending).

This collage sheet is filled with 26 miniature
men and women wearing Regency period fashions (my favorite) and are approximately
2 ½” tall. The images are sized to fit
the theater
shadowboxes carried by Alpha Stamps and are great for other small art
projects.

I assembled this theatre using a
chipboard kit, collage sheet images and chipboard wheels.

On either side of the stage are the
doors (faux) so that the theater can be secured and moved to the next town for
another performance.

After gluing the pieces together, I used
decorative paper to cover the outside of the shadowbox.

Next, on the inside, I added the background
scenery from the French Fairies Shadowbox Façade collage sheet. You don't need to add anything else to cover the
inside of the shadowbox as you won’t see it when the curtains are attached.

I added more of the teal curtain image to the chipboard facade and attached the chipboard to the front of the shadowbox.

Next, I used images from the Gatefold Shrine Curtains collage sheet to create a skirt for the stage. I thought that the skirt gave the piece more
height and provided a place to attach the wheels. I backed the stage pieces with chipboard to
make them sturdy.

Next, I attached layers of teal curtains,
popping up sections of the curtains to create dimension and added the chipboard
skirt. To the top, I added a pediment
from the French Fairies Shadowbox Façade collage sheet backed with decorative
paper.

To dress-up the theatre I glued together
3 sets of white feathers colored with Inca Gold Gilders Paste. I used my fingers to apply the paste to the
feathers.

I also attached feathers to the doors
and a brass connectors to serve a faux pull (to close the doors).

The picture below is a side view of the
theater before the doors are attached.
You can see how the pop dots on the curtains are visible. The doors not only serve as a structural and
decorative element to the theater but they also hide the pop dots.

Next, I glued the doors to the shadowbox
at a slight angle (forward).

The last step was to add the chipboard wheels which I
painted and then dressed them up with a piece of filigree and an image
(the same image that is in the skirt). Lastly,
I glued the wheels to the skirt.